At a reception
at the Graduate Student Center, on April 29, President
Judith Rodin presented certificates
and checks to the ten awardees of this year's "Penn Prize
for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students." She established
and has funded the awards since 2000. At the ceremony,
Deputy Provost Peter Conn congratulated the students and
noted that they represent a much larger pool of graduate
students who contribute greatly to the campus through their
teaching and mentoring of undergraduates. Dr. Janice Madden,
chair of the selection committee (which included past winners,
faculty from across Penn, and undergraduates) read passages
from the more than 220 nominations submitted.

Dr. George Pappas, assistant
professor of electrical and systems engineering, has
been named as
one of the nation's most promising young scientists and
engineers by President George W. Bush with a 2002 Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Dr. Pappas
is one of 20 National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported
researchers to be recognized
at the White House. In total, 57 researchers sponsored
by NSF and eight other federal departments and agencies
were honored. Dr. Pappas was recognized for his work in
the understanding of hybrid systems‹complex, information
systems embedded inside physical systems such as those
found in avionics, automotive electronics, robotics or
medical devices.

"Hybrid systems arise naturally
when sensors and actuators, such as those physically controlling
a robot,
are supervised by software logic which focuses on higher
level reasoning," said Dr. Pappas. "Inexpensive processors
and sensors are becoming almost ubiquitous. So the application
of hybrid system theory is not only interesting from
an engineering perspective, but also important because
of
its presence in everyday life and relevance to our high-tech
economy."

Dr. Pappas
received a $375,000 CAREER grant for the study of hierarchical
abstractions of hybrid systems.
This research will enable the integration of low-level,
detailed physical models, used for controlling aircraft
or robot motion, with high-level but simple models, used
for multi-aircraft or multi-robot coordination. The grant
also allows him to focus on creating new hybrid system
courses for graduate and undergraduate students, allowing
students to learn embedded and hybrid system concepts at
Penn's GRASP Laboratory.

Academy of Arts and Sciences: Three Fellows

The American Academy of Arts and
Sciences has elected 178 new Fellows this year including
two Penn
professors and one trustee. Dr. Robert James Sharer, curator,
American Section, and the Sally & Alvin Shoemaker Professor
of Anthropology, and Dr. Rogers M. Smith, the Christopher
H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science
and the Honorable Leonore C. Annenberg, Trustee
Emeritus, and President and Chairman of the Annenberg Foundation
have recently been elected to the Academy.

"These new members have made
extraordinary contributions to their fields and disciplines
through their
commitment to the advancement of scholarly and creative
work in every field and profession," said Academy President
Patricia Meyer Spacks. Founded in 1780 by scholar patriots
"to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance
the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free,
independent, and virtuous people."

Sabloff Keeper of American Section

In honor of Penn Museum Director, Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff, who
steps down at the end of June after 10 years as director,
the Museum's
Board of Overseers have contributed to endow The Jeremy
A. Sabloff Keeper of the American Section. It has been
endowed for $1.2 million.

American Philosophical Society

A. Bruce
Mainwaring, chairman emeritus of the Museum's Board
of Overseers (1991-1995), has been elected to the American
Philosophical Society. The honorary society, founded
in 1743, is unusual among learned societies because its
membership is comprised of top scholars from a wide variety
of academic disciplines.

Publication Award

Touching the Mekong,
a book providing a visual exploration of comtemporary
life in southeast
Asia, through 150 photographs by Andrea Baldeck (Med. '79),
book design by Veronica Miller, published by the Penn Museum,
won an honorable mention in the American Association of
Museums' Museum Publications Design Competition.

Community Outreach: Dr. Gluch

Dr. Joan Gluch, Penn
Dental's Director
of Community Health, has been recognized for her leadership
in community outreach as one of ten finalists for theThomas
Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning, named in honor
of a former Penn Provost. "Joan has made an
important intellectual contribution to the field, transforming
clinical and field work and mandatory community service
into a high quality, integrated, four-year program that
improves the teaching of core dentistry skills while making
a genuine, positive impact upon Penn's West Philadelphia
community," says Dr. Ira Harkavy. "Moreover,
she has been instrumental in building Penn Dental's community
service
capacity."

Women in Science Fellowship

Kelly
George, an SAS doctoral student in organic chemistry,
is among five women to be honored for their achievements
and promising scientific research as part of the L'Oreal
USA for Women in Science Fellowship Programme. She will
be awarded an education and research grant of $20,000
during a reception at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Her research focuses on the synthesis of
natural products from plants and fungi, recreating biologically
active and medicinally significant in the laboratory. Her
goal is to work as a synthetic organic chemist in the private
sector where she can develop new pharmaceuticals.

"Kelly is an outstanding individual, capable
of chemistry at a very high level, but it is her more intangible
qualities that really set her apart," said Dr. Gary Molander,
her advisor and a chemistry professor. "In her time here
she has created study groups for women in chemistry and
an outreach program to bring chemistry to local schools.
She a natural leader who really knows how to bring people
together."